Immigration – Removal

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: S.A.B., v. Dana J. Boente

Case No.: 15-1834; 15-3874, 16-1303

Officials: POSNER, EASTERBROOK, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Immigration – Removal

The petitioner is a former member of the OLF now living in the United States. Her name is not SAB, though that is the name that appears in the briefs; those are her initials; she or her lawyers are concerned that should her name appear in the briefs in this court or in our opinion, she or a member of her family, such as her sister, who had been imprisoned by the Ethiopian government possibly in an attempt to discover SAB’s whereabouts after she’d fled the country, might be‐ come a target of the Ethiopian government. We’ll refer to her by her initials rather than her name, but it would be unrealistic to think they actually conceal her identity; for the opinions of the Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration Appeals use her full name rather than her initials to identify her, and those opinions are public documents. An Ethiopian citizen now 61 years old, SAB came to the United States in 2004 on a visitor’s visa that expired in December of that year. But rather than leave the United States she applied for asylum and alternatively for withholding of removal. When an asylum officer deemed her claims not credible, the Department of Homeland Security charged her in the Immigration Court with being “removable” (deportable) for having remained in the United States after the expiration of her visa, and therefore illegally. See 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B). She conceded removability, and the immigration judge designated Ethiopia as the country to which she would be removed. But she renewed her application for asylum and her alternative application for withholding of removal, basing both grounds for relief on fear that if re‐ moved to Ethiopia she would be tortured by the Ethiopian government because of her past membership (which she acknowledges) in the OLF

Petition denied

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.